“Last night was magical. Is it always like that between our kind?”

“I think it was so magical because we love each other and have been waiting for so long to be in each other’s arms.”

“Are you going to go with us tonight?” I asked, sitting up on one elbow.

“I think it’s best if I show face at Angelica’s when her third house falls.”

“But why? She’s gonna know it was us.”

“She will trust that I had no part in it and will believe me when I say that I can set up a meeting.”

“I don’t think I like the idea of you being around people like that,” I replied, laying my head down on his chest.

“Remember, this is the plan of you and your first. I would have gladly taken you away from all of this,” he said, bringing my blood to the boiling point in a split second.

“Now why the hell would you have to go and say something like that?” I asked, sitting up and swinging my legs off of the bed. “Do you actually think that’s why I came looking for you, so you could save me?”

“I thought maybe it was one of the reasons, yes,” he replied, trying to reach out and touch my back.

“Don’t,” I said, jumping to my feet. “You can’t touch me after you make me mad. Just so you know, I thought finding you might help us win against the elders and have a fighting chance of changing the way the breeders have to survive.”

“Why are you getting so angry?”

“I don’t know!” I yelled, putting my shirt on. “Maybe, because I wanted more support for what I’ve been trying to do, not have you think I’m some weak tiny thing that needs rescuing.”

“Please, come back to bed. I did not mean to make it sound as bad as you took it.”

“No, you stay in bed. I have a fight to get to.” I slid my pants on and started for the door when he met me halfway there.

“You are still the most stubborn woman that I have ever known. Are you going to become this angry every time I try to take care of you?” he asked, spinning me around.

“You don’t have a clue about how big of a bitch I can become, Martin. And I can damn well take care of myself!” I shouted the last up into his face; pulling away and yanking the door open to find Derek about to barge in.

“Is he hurting you?” Derek asked, looking shocked, seeing Martin standing in the nude and me with my shirt undone.

“Good grief, doesn’t anyone around here think I can take care of myself?” I said through gritted teeth, and then stormed past him.

I could hear them arguing all the way down the hall and didn’t care if they killed each other. I found my way to the kitchen where Tammy and Cates were both leaning on the center table waiting for Garvin and Sydney to slice the throat of a plump pig. I pursed my lips together and walked past them and out the back door. Neither said a word as the back door slammed. I saw Garvin stand up from the stalls out back but he only watched as I moved through the hedges on the walkway behind the home of my maker. I must have walked a good half of a mile before I realized that my shirt was still flapping in the wind. I angrily buttoned it the rest of the way and tucked it into my pants. The only thing that felt good was my bare feet on the grassy lawn that spread out for what seemed like forever.  There was a twisting path of waist to neck high shrubbery all the way to the enormously high wall that circled three-fourths of the property.

The trees were different here yet they filled the night sky very much the same. To my back lay the land of the city of London, but to my front stood what looked like the gateway to another abyss in time. The land rolled out into the dark night; a strange misty fog covered what I could see of the lower areas and the differences in the shapes of the trees made it look like a hidden city of its own. With what we had seen in the forest back in the States, besides the orange and golden brown leaves, my mind didn’t even care to know what secrets were kept in the eerie world that I was now staring off into.

“Many different beasts live beyond these boundaries.”

“Oh Fala, you scared me,” I gave a nervous laugh. “How do you know?”

“I can feel them inside here.” He placed his hand over his heart. “There are shifters out there that I have only heard of in tales from the old ones.”

“And you get this just from a feeling?” I asked, looking back out into the dense forest beyond Martin’s land.

“All animals can feel if they are prey or predator. Here, I am thought of as both.”

“So, you’re saying that there are things out there that are bigger and meaner than

you are?” I smiled, trying to make light of the seriousness on his face.

“That would be correct,” he replied, keeping that same look, causing me to lose my smile.

“Maybe we better head back now.” I began walking back, looking over my shoulder as we turned.

“I believe that would be wise.”

“Is it why you followed me out here?”

“I did not follow you. I followed him.” He turned his head slightly to the right, where I caught a glimpse of a cloaked figure. “I chose to tell you of the others before you choose to go further.”

“That boy is a sneaky little bugger, isn’t he?”

“Excuse me, My Lady?”

“Nothing, I was just talking to myself,” I smiled, putting my hand on the tall werewolf’s back. “Thanks for telling me, and thanks for taking care of us while we rest. It means a great deal to all of us, ya know?”

“It will make my people proud when I return,” he said, holding his head up with pride.

“We couldn’t do this without you, Fala. You come from a brave people indeed. My pa would call ya good stock”

“And you as well.”

We walked back in silence, not seeing Derek again, but I knew he was there watching my every move. It seemed that he had become my personal protector, and proved that by standing up to anyone who he felt was placing me in harm’s way. I often forgot that I was all he had left of our original five. I had taken the ones we had gathered along the way into my heart just as I had him and Brandon, as well as Bo and Ashley. Derek on the other hand, held his heart in a deep stone case letting few hold the key. He fought by the side of every person; be it breeder, shape shifter, or winged flyer, but he refused to show that once loving emotion that he so freely shared not very long ago. ***

We could see that Garvin and Sydney were now in the kitchen surrounded by everyone else in the house, including Martin. Fala excused himself and walked toward the stall where the pig’s carcass waited, empty of its fluid and hanging upside down from the barn door entrance. Derek stepped up behind me as my mind wandered on what it must have been like for my father being hung in that same fashion, scaring me before I could carry that thought over into something I needn’t be thinking about anyway. He reached up and opened the back door, partly raising the right side of his mouth, as his long blond bangs covered the left side of his face. That boy never needed to say he was sorry for stepping out of line when it came to Martin and me. I could see it in the one sparkly, hazel-blue eye that looked back at me.

“What would I do without my dark angel?” I smiled with both eyes full of tears.

“Be in a world of shit,” he replied, making me laugh out loud as my sad tears turned to happy rivers down my cheeks.

I hurried and wiped my face and as I walked by him to enter the house, I kissed him on the cheek, whispering, “thank you” with a quick “I love you too, kiddo” then walked into the best smelling kitchen since my ma’s homemade peach cobbler. The scent of fresh warm blood filled the air with a sweet welcoming aroma that had once plagued me with doubt of ever surviving the life of a night walking bloodbreeder. At that moment I craved nothing more than that moist texture running down my throat; so I walked right up to the counter, grabbed one of Martin’s fancy goblet style glasses and dipped it down into the silver bowl sitting in the middle of the kitchen table.